Current Affairs Quiz – January 19 2018

Current Affairs Quiz

1. Who has been appointed as Director (Projects), NTPC, the state-owned company?
a) Pawan Kumar Bansal
b) Mohan Kumar Acharya
c) Dinesh Kumar Gopi
d) Susanta Kumar Roy

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Answer d) Susanta Kumar Roy. Susanta Kumar Roy has been appointed as Director (Projects), NTPC, the state-owned company. Roy was Executive Director (Projects) at the country’s largest electricity producer, NTPC. Roy joined NTPC in 1981 as Executive Trainee and has more than 36 years of experience in large size coal power stations.

2. Who has been appointed as the new Director General (DG) of the ‘black cats’ commando force (NSG)?
a) Dineshwar Sharma
b) Sudeep Lakhtakia
c) Aruna Bahuguna
d) Krishna Chaudhary

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Answer b) Sudeep Lakhtakia. Senior IPS officer Sudeep Lakhtakia has been appointed as the new Director General (DG) of the ‘black cats’ commando force NSG. An order appointing the 1984-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Telangana cadre was issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The National Security Guard (NSG) was raised as the federal contingency force to counter terrorists and hijack- like incidents in 1984.

3. Who has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Executive Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB)?
a) Harish Manwani
b) Ajay Piramal
c) Sanjiv Mehta
d) Sunil Duggal

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Answer a) Harish Manwani. Harish Manwani, Non-Executive Chairman of FMCG major Hindustan Unilever, has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Executive Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB). Manwani’s appointment as the ISB Executive Board Chairman will be effective April 2018. He succeeds Adi Godrej, who has been the Chairman of the board since April 2011.

4. In a first, India will host Yoga training sessions at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in __________
a) USA
b) Russia
c) Switzerland
d) China

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Answer c) Switzerland. In a first, India will host Yoga training sessions at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. This will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Davos visit and also the first by an Indian Prime Minister since the one by H D Deve Gowda in 1997. As part of this, Yoga has been included in the main WEF programme for which we will be taking two acharyas to Davos to provide yoga classes during the five-day summit.

5. ____________ is developing an artificial intelligence technology (AI) that can generate images based on text descriptions
a) Apple
b) Google
c) Samsung
d) Microsoft

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Answer d) Microsoft. Microsoft is developing an artificial intelligence technology (AI) that can generate images based on text descriptions, the company has said. Called a ‘drawing bot’, it produces a nearly three-fold boost in image quality compared to previous state-of-the-art technique for text-to-image generation. It also adds details to images that weren’t in the text, indicating it has an artificial imagination.

6. Which Small Finance Bank has signed an MoU with LIC to offer Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY)?
a) AU Small Finance Bank
b) Ujjivan Small Finance Bank
c) Equitas Small Finance Bank
d) Capital Small Finance Bank

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Answer a) AU Small Finance Bank. Banking finance company AU Small Finance Bank has signed an MoU with LIC to offer Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY). Under the MoU, LIC will give a life cover of ₹2 lakh in case of death to the customer at a nominal premium of ₹330 per annum. The company will also offer loans under government’s affordable housing and subsidy schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

7. India became the ______member of the Australia Group, which counters the export of material, equipment and technologies that could create chemical and biological weapons
a) 37th
b) 41st
c) 43rd
d) 47th

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Answer c) 43rd. India became the 43rd member of the Australia Group, which counters the export of material, equipment and technologies that could create chemical and biological weapons. In 2016, India had joined the Missile Technology Control Regime, aimed at restricting missile proliferation. Last year, India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement, which controls export of conventional weapons.

8. Which state government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Clean Authority of Tokyo for solid waste management?
a) Andhra Pradesh
b) Telangana
c) Maharashtra
d) Haryana

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Answer b) Telangana. Telangana has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Clean Authority of Tokyo for solid waste management. The two sides will exchange expertise and build technical cooperation in waste management. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce (I&C), Telangana and Yoshimi Sato, Vice-President, Clean Authority of Tokyo, signed the MoU. The Telangana delegation headed by Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao also signed a Letter of Intent with ISE Foods Inc. ISE Foods will set up a pilot project for egg production using advanced technologies.

9. Which state government is in the process of coming out with an exclusive Aerospace and Defence policy?
a) Tamil Nadu
b) Kerala
c) Odisha
d) Rajasthan

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Answer a) Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu government is in the process of coming out with an exclusive Aerospace and Defence policy. The policy’s objective is to achieve a 30 per cent share of the defence sector in India and creating high-end employment opportunities for around 100,000 people in the state. The development of Chennai Aerospace Park at Sriperumbudur is one such initiative to start with. The Chennai Aerospace Park is being set up in 250 acres in the first phase which will be expanded to 500 acres in the next phase.

10. Which country has announced the world’s first public register that requires overseas companies that own or buy property in the country to provide details of their ultimate owners?
a) Austria
b) Sweden
c) Poland
d) Britain

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Answer d) Britain. Britain has announced the world’s first public register that requires overseas companies that own or buy property in the country to provide details of their ultimate owners. The government is set to publish relevant draft laws and the register will go live by early 2021. This world-first register will build on our reputation for corporate transparency as well as help create a hostile environment for economic crimes like money laundering.

11. Which state to setup first block chain academy in India?
a) Karnataka
b) Manipur
c) Kerala
d) Gujarat

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Answer c) Kerala. The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) has planned to set up a Kerala Blockchain Academy, arguably the first of its kind in the country. The academy will be a joint initiative of the IIITM-K and the global Blockchain Education Network (BEN). This would be done in collaboration with BEN as well as best-in-class blockchain experts and researchers group from across the world. The technology could also be harvested in capacity building initiatives and for promoting disruptive innovations and entrepreneurship.

12. ____________ has formally announced the launch of a new ‘Business’ application
a) Google
b) Whatsapp
c) Hike
d) Microsoft

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Answer b) Whatsapp. Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp has formally announced the launch of a new ‘Business’ application. Called WhatsApp Business, it’s a free-to-download Android application for business users. The application, which was available in beta for almost a month, is currently available in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Britain and the US. The app will roll out for other countries, and in India, in the coming weeks.

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